The Memo on Wilson & His Wife
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Time Magazine's Matt Cooper appeared on this Sunday's Meet The Press with Tim Russert. Russert asked Cooper from whom did he first learn that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. His answer: Karl Rove.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Prosecutors in the C.I.A. leak case "have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat came to be dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission and the role of his wife, a C.I.A. officer, in the trip." This may be the smoking gun that proves Rove and his cohorts were seeking revenge against a critic of their illegal war. The Associated Press reported Friday: "After Rove's chat with Cooper, Mr. Rove sent an e-mail message to Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, saying he "didn't take the bait" when Mr. Cooper suggested that Mr. Wilson's criticisms had been damaging to the administration."
Because the NY Times article is acessible by subscribers only, here is the balance of the article: The memorandum was sent to Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, just before or as he traveled with President Bush and other senior officials to Africa starting on July 7, 2003, when the White House was scrambling to defend itself from a blast of criticism a few days earlier from the former diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson IV, current and former government officials said. Mr. Powell was seen walking around Air Force One during the trip with the memorandum in hand, said a person involved in the case who also requested anonymity because of the prosecutor's admonitions about talking about the investigation.
Investigators are also trying to determine whether the gist of the information in the document, including the name of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, Mr. Wilson's wife, had been provided to the White House even earlier, said another person who has been involved in the case. Investigators have been looking at whether the State Department provided the information to the White House before July 6, 2003, when Mr. Wilson publicly criticized the way the administration used intelligence to justify the war in Iraq, the person said.
posted by Lisa @ 8:06 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
BTW, for those 'suscription only' websites, try bugmenot.com (got that from Michelle Malkin...hehe). They'll supply you with logins and passwords to most subscription only sites.
What confuses me about the Matt Cooper interview with Russert is that it sounds like he was telling Libby, not the other way around. See below:
M
R. RUSSERT: Did Mr. Libby say at any time that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA?
MR. COOPER: No, he didn't say that.
MR. RUSSERT: But you said it to him?
MR. COOPER: I said, "Was she involved in sending him?," yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: And that she worked for the CIA?
MR. COOPER: I believe so.
'I believe so'??? He can't be any more definite about who was telling whom about Plame? I'm confused.
The other part was the 'other sources' he mentioned. Being as the media generally knew who Plame was, are those the sources he won't mention while fingering Rove and Libby?
My take is that this will ultimately be a tempest in a teapot. My other take is that no one in the media will hold Wilson's feet to the fire about how he got the assignment to visit Nigeria in the first place. Looks pretty plain that his wife got him the gig (hey, its inside the beltway, after all) and not the Whitehouse or Cheney as he indicated. We'll see...
Do you honestly believe that the aide to the Vice President had to be told of an CIA agent's identity by a reporter from Time? that is completely nonsensical and once again you are losing focus on the real issue at hand. Did you read that there was a State Department Memo disclosing her covert status? She specialized in WMD proliferation. Her work was obviously very sensitive as she was fronting a corporation in Europe. Her colleagues were dealing with questionable characters. The CIA won't confirm or deny that one of her fellow covert agents involved in Brewster Jennings, Inc. was executed shortly after her covert status was revealed and the BJ corp folded. YOU HAVE TO HAVE A HIGH SECURITY CLEARANCE TO KNOW WHO THE COVERT AGENTS ARE...Do you know who signed one of those security clearances and agreements to not disclose sensitive information- pertinent to our national security? ROVE.
Speaking of focus, you may want to peruse this 'friend of the court' brief filed by no less than 36 major news organizations on behalf of Judith Miller and Matt Cooper in Federal Court in Washington. The gist of it was that prosecutors had no grounds to go after Miller or Cooper about sources, since no crime had been committed. That is to say, the CIA had 'outed' Valerie Plame sometime back and her cover was already blown. She had certainly been at a desk for long enough and allowed by the CIA to contribute to a political campaign (can't do that and keep your cover) to 'officially' take her out of the covert operative business. Now, the mainstream media can't have it both ways. They (and by extension, the rest of Bush Hatingdom) can't keep hammering on the assumption that Rove committed a crime and at the same time tell a judge there was no crime associated with Miller and Cooper protecting their sources. Either Miller and Cooper are in trouble because Plame had covert status, or not in trouble because she didn't. Pick one. Either everyone's guilty or no one is. That being the case, you can put out the fire and call in the dogs...this hunt is over with. BTW, the amicus curiae can be found at: http://www.bakerlaw.com/files/tbl_s10News/FileUpload44/10159/Amici%20Brief%20032305%20(Final).PDF
Now,after reading that, please tell me under what circumstances Karl Rove committed a crime.
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